MOZA R3 Racing Wheel and Pedals for Xbox & PC

Written by John Yan on 9/24/2024 for PC   XSX  

MOZA Racing is a company that specializes in racing wheels and they’ve only been in the game for a few years. Producing racing wheels since 2021, they’re a newer company in the arena, but they’ve gotten some good reviews for their direct drive wheels. I’ve only recently experienced direct drive racing wheels and it’s one of the best ways to play at home.

MOZA reached out and asked if I wanted to check out some of their products for review. They were kind enough to send over the R3 Racing Wheel and Pedals for the Xbox and PC bundle along with a clutch pedal and an upgrade for the brake. How well does this wheel compare to the more expensive Logitech direct drive wheel that I have?

Coming in at $399.00 for the bundle, the R3 bundle looks to offer a great performing Direct Drive wheel at a much more affordable price. Direct drive wheels aren’t cheap, but MOZA’s offering might be good for those wanting a direct drive wheel without breaking the bank. Until recently, it was $100 more than the entry Logitech G29 wheel, which for that price difference, I’d go with the R3 all day long. With the recent G29 price drop, it might be a little harder to recommend for those on a budget, but I will always recommend a Direct Drive wheel.

The bundle comes with a wheel, a base, and two pedals. Let’s start with the base itself. I was surprised at how small the base was compared to others. You can easily hold it in one hand, a far cry from the others I’ve looked at. The X shaped housing, appropriate since this is an Xbox compatible wheel, holds a direct drive setup with a motor capable of up to 3.9Nm of force. Compared to the Logitech Pro Wheel, it’s less than half the amount of force that it’s capable of, but at less than half the price of that wheel, I would say that’s expected and it might be enough for most folks, something we’ll find out during testing. I normally play at around 5.0Nm for comparison.

Physically, the base unit measures 135mm wide by 120mm high and 93mm deep. It’s a very compact package and won’t take up much space either on your desk or attached to a chair setup. The housing is made of aluminum with a plastic rear. On the back are a grouping of RJ11 connectors that will let you connect a whole litany of MOZA add-ons with the wheelbase. A single RJ45 connector is there to connect the pedals to. There’s also a USB type B connector to connect to your device of choice with the included type B to type A cable. Finally, there’s a 5 pin power connector here to power the R3 setup. A power button is also situated in the rear of the base unit and easily accessible when reaching around from the front. I think I would’ve rather seen the power button on the front of the base like the Logitech’s Pro Wheel, but this is just a small nitpick of the configuration.

Included with the R3 bundle is the Xbox compatible wheel. Because it has the Xbox security chip inside, you can use this wheel with other MOZA wheel bases and have an Xbox capable controller, which is nice if you want to move up to more powerful wheel bases. MOZA recently decided to sell the wheel separately so if you already do have a MOZA wheelbase, you can just pick up the wheel and it would be compatible with the console.

The outside is wrapped in a hard ISF polyethylene, which doesn’t feel as nice as say the faux leather of other wheels. It’s OK and I can understand MOZA using a less premium type of material to save on costs for this bundle. The feel and grip is still pretty good, but I do prefer the feeling of other wheels compared to this one. There’s what seems to be a painted centerline at the top of the D-shape wheel, which by the way has a diameter of 280mm. It’s just a tad smaller than the Logitech Pro wheel and I have no problems with the smaller size as it would fit the R3 base’s strength rating making it so the force feedback effects aren’t as muted if you had a larger diameter wheel.

There are 22 programmable buttons with the big Xbox button on the bottom right to let you know that this is indeed an Xbox capable wheel. The buttons feel OK with a soft, mushy feel when pushed. Compared to say an Xbox controller, they don’t feel as satisfying when pressed, but I feel it’s fine for what they are. All the outer buttons are easily accessible with my hands on the wheel with what I think are six buttons needing me to take my hand off the wheel in order to press them.

On the left side is a functional D-pad, which is good for what it’s intended for and that’s mostly for traversing menus in the game. You really don’t need anything really high quality in terms of feel and the D-pad here is good in terms of what it’s designed for.

A rev strip indicator sits on top of the front allowing you customize the strip to different settings of your car. You can use the MOZA software to make adjustments and change what they indicate to suit your needs. I’m mostly a VR racer though so the light strip does get lost on me since I have a VR HMD on my face. But, if you do mixed reality using the Quest 3 pass through, it can be seen if you put a mask around the wheel so it’s shown when you’re in VR.

What’s missing on this wheel that some people might want are rotary dials. There are none at all as all of the controls are buttons. Even on the entry level Logitech wheels, there are some dial controls on there and I think that’s one of the few things missing from the R3 wheel that I feel should have been there.

On the back of the wheel are two shifter pedals that are decent. They have a good click to them when pressed, but I feel they are a little soft and don’t have the pronounced feel from other racing wheels. After releasing the pedals, they spring back into position quickly and decisively. They feel a lot better to me than the G29’s pedal shifters and a good step up from other entry level wheels around this price range.

The wheels are easily interchangeable and easily come off with a simple pull of the collar. When the wheel is attached to a table or a base, I can easily put both hands on either side of the round attachment, pull back a little, and the wheel comes right off. You can see the ball bearings that help lock them in place. Connection between the wheel and the base is solid with zero flex or give. I tried twisting it around pushing to one side or the other and the wheel didn’t budge. It’s a super strong connection, but allows for easy removal of the rim. You can be sure once you connect a wheel, it’s not going anywhere until you decide to take it off.

Looking inside of the wheel, you can see some pogo pins in a T shape that will connect to the connection pads on the wheel base. The pogo pins are spring loaded so they will push in slightly when the rim is connected.

If you like the D-shaped wheel, MOZA does offer a Formula style wheel and a round wheel that you can use instead. You just remove the D-shaped wheel and attach the wheel of your choosing with the screws and you’re off to the races. Having the option to change out shapes without having to buy a whole wheel is a very nice option and that’s one of the things I really like about MOZA’s ecosystem, which I’ll talk about more later.

Unlike a lot of wheels I’ve reviewed, the MOZA R3 comes with two pedals. If you’re only going to drive an automatic car, then the clutch pedal would just be a waste. But, MOZA does sell a clutch pedal attachment, which they sent along so if you do prefer a three pedal setup, you can upgrade the R3 to do so. I like this option because for more casual players, they won’t be using the clutch at all, but should those people decide to move up to driving where a clutch is needed, one can add one easily later on down the road.

Each pedal is made of aluminum as well. They have two small screw holes on the face of the pedal so adjusting them can only be done vertically. If you want any side to side adjustment at that top area, you’ll have to make your own holes unfortunately. The springs on each pedal aren’t too stiff so if you’re a beginner or maybe have little ones that want to play, they won’t have problems pushing it down with their feet. When let go, they spring back to the beginning position quickly and it wasn’t hard to use my foot to change how far down I depress the pedals and holding it in a position I want it to be.

Something really nice about the pedals is that they are all using hall effect sensors to gauge how far you press down. That means no wear and tear like some pedals that use potentiometers. It’s something I wish more companies would use and I’m really happy to see MOZA use them here.

The pedals attach to the metal base by four small screws and can be moved to either side. If you decide to add the clutch in though, then you start to limit the amount of space that it can move unless you decide to just not use the metal base and attach them individually to a sim rig. The metal base does a fairly decent job of staying in place on carpet though unless you add in the brake pedal performance kit.

For those who want a more stronger feel to the brake, MOZA doesn’t have a load cell upgrade but their performance kit does come with a very strong spring and a damping block. Installation was pretty darn simple and I was able to get it onto the brake pedal in about five minutes. When installed, it does make the brake feel a lot more realistic than with just the spring, but not as good as a complete load cell setup. Still, it’s better with it than without it, but there is that caveat I mentioned where it makes the base unstable and lift up when pressing on the brake if it’s not bolted down. That means you can’t just use it easily on non sim rig installations so keep that in mind if you are thinking of picking it up.

For attaching to a table, MOZA includes a nice table clamp. To be honest, I didn’t know that some companies didn’t include a table clamp as the Logitech wheels that I’ve reviewed all included one or had one built into the base. The metal clamp included with the MOZA R3 bundle attaches to the wheelbase via 4 M6 screws. After that you have two screw knobs which can tighten the clamps to a horizontal surface. I used it both on a table and sim rig to test out and it does a solid job at keeping the wheel securely in place. I do have to say it looks a little funny to see such a tiny base on my chair, but if you’re using it on a table, the small size will allow you to have more room on the table and it’s easier to stow away when not in use.

The software by MOZA is very feature rich allowing you to adjust many components of the wheel to suit your liking. The MOZA Pit House really lets you tailor the driving experience letting you adjust things like force feedback intensity, wheel spring strength, maximum output torque limit, inertia, and friction just to name a few. If it can be adjusted, you can bet that the software will let you. The options are pretty staggering and I was surprised at how much you can change when going through the menus. I liked how you can adjust the pedal output curves individually as well. You can even import settings from others if you are not that versed in adjusting them to certain games. For those who don’t have a PC, MOZA has a mobile app that connects to the wheelbase via Bluetooth so even without a computer, you have the option to make these adjustments if you are primarily a console player. I would say MOZA has one of the better software suits out there to adjust racing wheels and it’s very easy to maneuver around in and change the settings you want.

With everything easily set up, how well does it feel on the virtual road? I played a variety of titles including Assetto Corsa, BeamNG, and American Truck Simulator on the PC while I tried out Forza Horizon 5 on the Xbox. For each game, I did do some adjustments although there’s the possibility of some plug and play, but I would budget the time to get everything to your liking in each game you play. On the console, it’s much easier to hop in and go, but even there I’d say take the time to set up the R3 to your specifications.

Performance was solid and even at 3.9Nm maximum torque strength, I felt the wheel performed great. I could feel every bump of the road in the games tested and my wheel would shake and react really well when I crashed hard in BeamNG. Flying down the course in Assetto Corsa, I liked the response from the Direct Drive base with its smooth motion and good but not overbearing force feedback strength.

Force feedback was not too strong, but most definitely strong enough that you get a good sense of what’s going on. You’ll feel the wheel jerk and shake when going over bumps or being bumped. I never felt like I had to fight the wheel too much and I think at 3.9Nm, it would be great for beginners as well as young ones. If you want force feedback to compliment and not override how you drive if you’re not on a smooth road, then the R3 bundle has got you covered. If you want bigger effects, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the more stronger MOZA wheel bases.

Turning was smooth as you would expect from a Direct Drive setup and it was completely quiet. If you haven’t had a chance to experience a Direct Drive wheel, you’ll be surprised at how quiet it is. Not only quiet, but how much better it feels on turns and force feedback. There’s no stuttering or choppiness when driving with the R3. Everything was quick and precise and I felt no lag when turning. For racing games, you want everything to be quick and react instantly and the R3 wheel did just that. Never did I feel I was out of control, unless I was crashing uncontrollably in a game like BeamNG. Usually when I test a wheel, it takes me some time to get used to. But for the R3, I was able to quickly get comfortable going around a track. And if you're just into slow driving a big rig like in American Truck Simulator, the R3 wheel will let you take to the open roads making deliveries to companies and enjoying the sights of what the US has to over when driving truck.

The wheelbase never got hot and only slightly, and I mean slightly warm during my testing. The housing and smaller drive unit helps keep the setup nice and cool. I wonder if the pronounced X shape helps dissipate the heat better as well. Overall, the R3 wheelbase at its small size performed very well in all aspects from smoothness of driving to the strength of the force feedback.

Compatibility on the PC and Xbox can be a little finicky depending on the game you want to play. Forza Horizon 5 was a pain to get working on the PC. On the Xbox, I had no problems with Forza Horizon 5 with the R3 wheel, but I've read there were issues with Assetto Corsa on the console until recently. I'm not blaming the wheel for any of these issues as it's sometimes on the part of the game developers when this happens. You'll want to make sure that the game you want to play does work for it and for the most part, it should.

Now, as I said before, there’s a lot of options that can take this R3 bundle and turn it into a very nice setup with many bells and whistles. On top of the R3 wheelbase are two mounting holes for a digital dash. Those wanting more visual feedback from their car and pick one up and attach it to the R3.

Want a shifter and/or a hand brake? There’s connections for that too and picking up one or both from MOZA can add this feature to the R3 set up and inject more immersion with those add-ons. I am also happy to see an option to add an emergency stop button to the R3 as well for safety.

Browsing MOZA’s website, you can see just how many things you can pick up to improve your driving setup and with the R3 bundle at the base, you can really go hog wild with adding as much as accessories as you want to take a beginner package to a more advanced setup minus the stronger wheel base. Even then, should you want to get something that outputs more torque but keeps the Xbox compatibility, you’re able to do that just by purchasing a stronger base. The expansion possibilities makes this a great buy for beginners and casual simulator enthusiasts wanting not to break the bank while keeping their options open for the future.

I will say now when I browse my Microcenter, I won’t look over the MOZA items available there. I’ve always been a little curious about MOZA’s offerings and seeing as how nice the R3 bundle is, I’m going to consider picking up more of their peripherals in the near future, especially since they are offered locally by me.

At $400 at the time of this writing, it’s such a no-brainer for those wanting to get into driving and get a solid Direct Drive unit. It’s got everything you need to get into racing and performance is great for the price. With Xbox compatibility and the option to use it on the PC, it’s versatile and fun to play with. I’ve replaced my G29 on my Xbox with the R3 bundle and it’s made driving much more enjoyable on a console. MOZA’s ecosystem is spectacular and the price for this bundle makes it a very easy recommendation for those starting out or those not wanting to spend too much on a good wheel.